View full size(AP File Photo)U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Mobile, seen here on Sept. 16, 2009, says a bill passed by Congress will protect American authors, journalists and publishers from foreign libel judgments that undermine the U.S. guarantee of free speech.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Mobile says a bill
passed by Congress will protect American authors, journalists and
publishers from foreign libel judgments that undermine the U.S.
guarantee of free speech.

The House approved the legislation by
voice vote Tuesday and sent it to President Barack Obama. The bill,
authored by Sessions and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.,
won Senate approval last week.

Under the bill, U.S. federal courts
will be prevented from recognizing or enforcing a foreign judgment for
defamation that is inconsistent with the free speech guarantee in the
Constitution.

Defendants in foreign cases can obtain a U.S. court
order declaring that a foreign judgment would not be enforceable under
American law.

Sessions said the bill is an important bipartisan
achievement that will protect free speech.

"It will ensure that
American writers cannot be penalized by foreign libel judgments that do
not comply with American law, removing a dangerous chilling effect on
the exercise of First Amendment rights," Sessions said today.

Sessions, a Mobile native, is the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee and Leahy
is the committee chairman.